Ask a longtime Torontonian about the summer jazz festival, and some still call it the du Maurier festival. Others remember coming home from a Queen Street show with smoke in their hair and jacket. Those memories feel recent, yet the rules behind them changed one bylaw at a time. The full story runs from a 1979 city vote to the plain packs sold today.
Tobacco now sits hidden behind the counter, in plain packaging, and is sometimes ordered online. Some of that ordering runs through Buy Cigarettes Online, a Canadian-owned site that serves only adults of legal smoking age and checks a birth date for the delivery province. In Ontario that age is 19, as it is in most provinces. Four provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec) use 18, while PEI uses 21. Federal law sets a minimum of 18 and local law applies on top of it.
When Did Toronto Start Clearing the Air?
Toronto moved before the province did. In 1979 the former City of Toronto banned smoking in retail stores, elevators, escalators and service line-ups. That sounds modest now, but it set the direction for everything that followed.
Ottawa followed in 1985 with the Non-smokers' Health Act. It banned smoking in federal buildings and workplaces, including banks. The former City of Toronto then passed a workplace bylaw in 1993 requiring every employer to adopt a written smoking policy.
Ontario's Tobacco Control Act arrived in 1994. It regulated how tobacco was sold and supplied, and set fines for breaking the rules. Toronto Public Health later published these steps as a city timeline.
How Did the Bar and Restaurant Fight Play Out?
The big fight came after amalgamation in 1998, when six municipalities became one city. Council needed a single bylaw, and it chose to phase it in. A designated smoking room is an enclosed room where smoking stayed legal inside an otherwise smoke-free business. It sat at the centre of most of the fights.
1999: One Bylaw for a New City
Council passed By-law 441-1999, later renamed Municipal Code Chapter 709. The first phase began on October 8, 1999.
2001: Restaurants Go First
On June 1, 2001, restaurants, dinner theatres and bowling alleys went smoke-free. The exception was a designated smoking room covering no more than 25% of public space.
2003 and 2004: Rooms, Then Bars
A 2003 amendment barred anyone under 19 from those rooms. It also required self-closing doors and kept food and drink service out of new ones. On June 1, 2004, bars, billiard halls, bingo halls, casinos and the racetrack faced the same rule.
2006: The Province Takes Over
The Smoke-Free Ontario Act took effect on May 31, 2006. From that day, designated smoking rooms could no longer be used for smoking.
Every one of those votes went through city council. That is worth remembering when only 29% of eligible voters chose that council in 2022, a point raised in a recent post on low municipal turnout.
What Happened When the Sponsors Left?
For years, the city's biggest jazz party carried a cigarette brand in its name. The du Maurier Downtown Jazz festival was a fixture of June in Toronto. Then federal sponsorship rules caught up with it.
In the late 1990s, arts groups across Canada warned that losing tobacco money could squeeze festival budgets. The ban on tobacco sponsorship took full effect on October 1, 2003. TD stepped in as the festival's title sponsor, and the brand name disappeared from the banners. Jazz regulars of that era, including voices like those heard in Jaymz Bee's recent episode, lived through the switch.
The rule still stands today. The federal sponsorship rules sit in the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act. Nobody may promote a tobacco brand in a way that links it to a person, event, activity or permanent facility. A brand also cannot appear on a facility used for sports or cultural events. Lifestyle advertising and advertising that could appeal to young people are barred too.
No concert hall in the city will ever carry a cigarette name again.
What Rules Shape a Toronto Corner Store Today?
The counter at your local convenience store reflects decades of these changes. Several layers now apply at once.
Behind the Counter
Ontario requires tobacco to stay out of sight until it is bought. That display ban took effect on May 31, 2008, and it ended the bright "power walls" of packs behind the cash. That is why the shelves behind most counters now look like plain closed cabinets.
Plain packaging is a federal standard that strips logos, colours and design from cigarette packs. Makers had to switch on November 9, 2019, and stores had until February 2020 to sell old stock. Every pack now shares the same drab brown finish, with health warnings covering most of the front.
Cashiers have to card anyone who looks younger than 25, and no one may sell or supply tobacco to a person under 19.
Outside the Door
Outside, the rules continue. Smoking has been banned on Ontario restaurant and bar patios since 2015. Chapter 709 is the city bylaw that bans smoking within nine metres of a public building's entrance or exit.
Near the Playground
Parks have their own layer. Since 2009, the city has banned smoking within nine metres of playgrounds, wading pools and splash pads.
How Did Online Ordering Join the Story?
Buying online does not change who may buy. In Toronto the legal age is still 19, the same as at a store counter. Ontario's Smoke-Free Ontario Act, 2017 sets that age, and sellers must ask for ID from anyone who appears to be under 25.
For readers who remember the old smoking sections, the change is striking. Nothing about it is promoted, displayed or celebrated anymore. The product that once named a jazz festival now arrives in a plain box, sold to adults only.
Toronto's Long Goodbye to the Smoking Section
Toronto cleared the air in steps, not in a single vote. Each phase drew a fight at council and a few predictions of doom. The result is a city where tobacco is still legal for adults, but rarely seen. Anyone who lived through those votes can trace them on a single walk, from the corner store to the patio and on to the park.
Frequently Asked Questions
When Did Toronto Bars Go Smoke-Free?
Toronto bars had to go smoke-free on June 1, 2004, unless they kept an approved smoking room. Those rooms ended when the Smoke-Free Ontario Act took effect on May 31, 2006.
Why Did the Jazz Festival Change Its Name?
Federal law banned tobacco sponsorship of events as of October 1, 2003. The festival dropped its du Maurier title, and TD became its main sponsor.
Can You Smoke On a Toronto Patio?
Not on a restaurant or bar patio. Ontario banned smoking there in 2015, and Toronto adds a nine-metre buffer around public building entrances.
Why Are Cigarettes Hidden Behind the Counter?
Ontario law requires tobacco to stay out of view until a customer buys it. Shoppers are not allowed to touch a pack until it is paid for.
